This series of lectures will take you on a journey of discovery from Antiquity to early Modernity. The lecturers will analyze, contextualize, and possibly criticize some of the more conspicuous rationalization processes that have shaped Western civilization. Subjects include Aristotle’s resolutely scientific approach of reality, Thomas Aquinas’ astonishingly rational views of religion, and the innovative rationality that we find in ancient Greek politics. The series will conclude with a lecture on how, since René Descartes, our rational self-image has tended to seriously blur the perception we have of our fellow creatures in the animal kingdom.